The first live-action Borderlands trailer captures the game’s absurdity

Welcome to Pandora. After yesterday’s teaser, the live-action Borderlands has released its first trailer and it looks like one heck of a ride, for better or worse. 

According to the description, Lionsgate’s Borderlands follows infamous bounty hunter Lilith as she returns to her chaotic planet of Pandora. Her mission: find the missing daughter of the powerful and arrogant Atlas (played by Edgar Ramírez). Lilith gathers a ragtag team of misfits and, together, they’ll take on many dangerous enemies and uncover Pandora’s biggest secret.

The film stars Academy-Award winner Cate Blanchett (Tar) as Lilith alongside the annoying robot Claptrap, the insane Tiny Tina, her bodyguard Krieg, the scientist Tannis, and the mercenary Roland. Those will be played by Jack Black (Super Mario Bros. Movie), Ariana Greenblatt (Barbie), Florian Munteanu (Shang-Chi), Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything, Everywhere, All at Once), and Kevin Hart (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), respectively. 

Bordering The Edge

It certainly captures the wild, colorful world of Pandora and Borderlands. Of course, that also includes its immaturity. There’s a lot of bathroom humor and, while it isn’t my cup of tea, I’m sure many enjoyed it. The action does seem on-par with other movies like it. And, if anything, the actors look like they’re having a good time. Everyone seems to fit their roles, including Hart, surprisingly. Also, I’ve been wanting to see Ariana Greenblatt do more after Barbie, so it was enjoyable to see her in a more leading and fun role.

As mentioned yesterday, Borderlands‘ has gone through the wringer in terms of development. Though, now we’ve settled on Thanksgiving’s Eli Roth and reshoots by Deadpool‘s Tim Miller. Will it be any good? Well, this is a trailer, so it can be better or worse.

Personally, I’m a bit on the fence. On one hand, it captures everything Borderlands is known for fairly well. On the other hand, I’m not sure I’m convinced about some of the creative choices made. Still, it feels like a type of guilty pleasure movie I’d watch with some pizza or something.

Borderlands comes to the big screen on August 9.